what does that tell us about u.s. policy? >> is sometimes data base will be put into place are a policy will be put into effect and even if things should be reconsidered, the estrangement are not necessarily made all the time because of the bureaucratic inertia, and we can do it and achieve anything we want. >> you write very graphically about the reality of war. are americans insulated from that? >> yes, in the u.s., the war is very sanitized. especially more than 11 years after the war began, the american people have grown weary about it. what the troops go through, what the families go through, and for that purpose, i would not be gratuitously graphic but descriptive of what exactly happens. >> it sounds like the u.s. presence is going and at the end of 2014. >> not really. during the campaign, the way obama and by and talk about the war, he says we will be out of there by 2014. combat troops will be gone, we will be withdrawing the combat troops. it is probably still we have -- we will probably still have counter-terroris